Liberal MP Craig Laundy has come to the defence of the treasurer over his widely-criticised advice to first home buyers.
The starting point for a first home buyer is to get “a good job that pays good money”, Joe Hockey told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday, while discussing the city’s housing affordability problem.
“He was saying that if you have a job and that job is secure and that job is well paid, a bank will lend you money and interest rates are as low historically as they have been,” Laundy, whose electorate covers parts of western Sydney, told ABC radio on Wednesday.
When asked at a press conference on Tuesday if residential property in Australia’s biggest city was out of the reach of many, Hockey said: “If housing were unaffordable in Sydney, no one would be buying it.”
Sydney’s median asking price for homes is $1.066 million, according to a survey by SQM research in April.
Amid widespread condemnation of Hockey’s remarks, Labor leader Bill Shorten was scathing of the treasurer’s comments.
“What planet is Joe Hockey living on?” Shorten asked. “This isn’t just another Joe Hockey gaffe; this is proof he just doesn’t get the pressures families are facing.”
Joe Hockey must be the only person in Australia who doesn’t think housing affordability is an issue. As far as he’s concerned, if Joe Hockey’s doing OK then everyone else is too,” Shorten said.
“How are Australians supposed to find the ‘good jobs that pay more’ when unemployment is at its highest levels in more than a decade under his government?”
Cassandra Goldie, Australian Council of Social Service chief, said the treasurer’s comments were out of touch with the reality of everyday families and individuals.
“Not everyone has the luxury of simply switching to a better paying job,” she said.
“The reality is there are nearly 800,000 people who can’t get a job right now.”
Independent senator Nick Xenophon labelled the comments “incredibly inane”.
“I wasn’t aware that Joe Hockey was getting media advice from Kim Kardashian,” he told Sky News.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the treasurer’s comments were “fantasy land stuff” from a man charged with the “nation’s purse strings”.
“That’s right out there, that sort of language, that’s let them eat cake sort of stuff,” Di Natale said. “Go and get a job that pays more money? We are just going to magic these jobs up out of thin air?”
Hockey continued to deny that parts of Australia were experiencing a housing bubble, saying that housing affordability would become easier as supply increased.
“I say again in relation to what is reasonably expensive entry costs for first home buyers into housing in Australia, the best response is to build more housing,” he said, adding that there is a greater role for both state and local governments in accelerating the building process.
Last week the treasury secretary, John Fraser, warned that parts of Sydney and Melbourne are experiencing a housing bubble, and the head of the financial systems inquiry, David Murray, said a sharp fall in property prices could be detrimental to the economy.
In August, Hockey came under fire for being out of touch after suggesting Australia’s “poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases”.
